Ohio Stadium Scoreboard Demolished; “SMARTVISION” Next – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/8/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 8, 1999
DEMOLITION VIDEO!
Columbus, Ohio – The Ohio Stadium scoreboard, built in 1984 at a cost of $2.6 million, came crashing down Wednesday, Dec. 8, and will be replaced by a much larger, state-of-the-art video board that will cost about $10 million. A Turner Construction bulldozer, cabled to the top of the scoreboard by four steel cables, pulled on the structure after much of the steel-work foundation was removed until it toppled north into the field. About 40 members of the local media were on hand to witness the event.
The technology in the new video board will be provided by SACO SMARTVISION INC., a company that has produced video boards for clients that include the Baltimore Ravens, the Golden State Warriors and the Washington Capitals. SMARTVISION video screens have also toured the world with such high profile entertainers as U2, Janet Jackson, The Spice Girls and Celine Dion,
The new video board, with dimensions of 30 feet by 90 feet, will be about 175-feet high – the old scoreboard reached 100 feet high – and it will be part of the new south stands construction. The video board will be about three times the size of the video boards at Michigan Stadium and at Spartan Stadium at Michigan State University. Ohio State’s new video board will have the capabilities to show live game action (similar to what is done at the Jerome Schottenstein Center for men’s and women’s basketball and hockey), show as many as three different games at one time during pre-game, replays and a multitude of statistics.
The $10 million cost of the video board includes much more than just the board. Included in that figure are the costs for a scoreboard at the north end of Ohio Stadium, ribbon statistical boards along B Deck (similar to what is in place at the Jerome Schottenstein Center), main concourse television monitors, B Deck monitors (a first in Ohio Stadium) and all the equipment – video, electrical, data and sound – needed to run the board. The new video board will be completed in time for the 2000 football season opener, Sept. 2 against Fresno State University.
